250m walk above the trees, 10 km walk below 'em

Went to the Treetop Walk today with L. Started out at 9 plus on bus 156 from Clementi Interchange, overshot by three bustops - accidentally discovering I can get to Junction 8 from Clementi! - backtracked and just followed the trail of pple. Quite an ok no. of people, considering we were walking along a solid rocky + packed-earth path, towering trees on either side. But it was nice and shady and although I got a little winded by the 3.5 km mark, it was a good trail. We saw monkeys, coming really close. Too bad my hands weren't steady enuff for any really good shots - the monkey had to be perched on a branch in front of me before I could squeeze off a nice one. The air generally fresh, with that underlying scent of natural brutal forest decomposition. I think 7 of the 10 km we trekked was separately cos I would get distracted by taking a shot and lag behind, heheh.

The view from the TTW was a decent one, I guess. I had more fun exploring how to shoot the undersides of leaves, glowing green with sharp shadows as the sun beat down from above. The part after the TTW was painful - endless wooden steps going up and up! On the up said, as I was going down, I heard a constant crackling sound of dry leaves. Just beyond the edge of the wooden steps, crawling down a slope, was a blood-red millipede at least 2 cm broad and 30 cm long! Nothing like those finger-long ones unearth from the schoolyard's compost heap in primary school.

10 freaking km and some interesting sights later - which included getting startled by a monkey letting loose a "show of blessing" from atop a high branch - we were back in civilisation! Got really tempted to soak my feet in the water as the wooden pathway of the last leg was built v. close to the water's surface. But the sight of the many pond-skiers (shui ma?) made me quickly change my mind.

We then took 156 to Junction 8 (air-con!) and recuperated at Mos Burger with coke and corn soup. Agreeing that the entire outing took us six hours, and could be attempted again some time in the DISTANT future, L returned home for an appt, but I still had the energy to go walking around some. Bought a three-box Taiwan series which the sales-lady said was "very popular" but was selling at $8 per box (the original price tags ranged between $20-29). What can I say? A cute guy on the cover and a promising storyline retards me ^_^

Still ok, coughing a little but not much aches or pain. Let's see if tomorrow I can climb out of bed, hahah.

Chinese Gardens! Glad to report that the mosquito population there is significantly lower than B-Garden (not the FF one) as I came away relatively unscathed. Quite tranquil and peaceful - until you cross a pathway of large stones atop a lake. I guess I'm should be happy about how metropolitan we are. Absorb the sureality of being in a park which expends effort to be Chinese (pretty landscaping of bamboo groves, stone bridges, pagodas and Confucius) and simultaneously blasts NSync across the green waters of its streams and pavilions. Not much shade but just enuff breeze to mess up foliage close-ups. There's just something about bamboo leaves - they inspire a sense of drifting contentment (or I'm working too hard, heh).

Woke up at 6.30 am today - dreaming of a frail rebellious Hermione scowling at a Primary Six Harry Potter as he was scrubbing drugged chocolate nuggets in the toilet. They looked like younger-sibling versions of themselves, without the colour and fire - like how I'd imagine Tess's younger sis looked standing next to Angel.

Did something quite pathetic but it meant a task completed on time and will give me a peace of mind for the weekend. At least till Tuesday when more stuff turn up to bug me. But at least I won't be bugged so much! How sad when one's life is dependent on the relativity of mind-bugginess. Anyways, solved it by 8am and was outta there. Just need to deliver something and I'm done!

Took a three-hour jaunt to Botanical Gardens again - this time all by me lonesome. Did all sorts of fun stuff, like get startled by the bush-hidden black swans braying (damn right they were braying *shudder*), fed about ten mosquitoes (or the same mosquito ten times), pretending to be a motionless water plant and getting leg cramps. But had a fun time taking close-ups of flowers and dragonflies(!!! - hence the making like a water plant, after a while, they alight just right next to you. One even obliging posed until my hands were steady enough while leaning over over the pond). Those underwater snails(?) are really something - their shells practically aglow with an inner blue even though the water is all green and aglae-y.

Anime
Suskiyo 12 - that's it?!!! Soooo many interesting supporting characters and that's it?! (Btw, almost choked on my dinner when I saw aarinfantasy doing Haru too.)

PoT 147 - starting to wonder if any anime with 70+ eps will be missing incestuous twins/siblings...

Bleach 24 - Hmm, Ichigo displaying most cute little brother (Yuuta!!!) tendencies in the presence of the scary Kukkaku-neesan who cowes gorrilla-like brother and subordinates with only one arm!

Full Metal Panic + Fuumoffu Rewatch - Can't wait for Part II. The FMP, PoT and Naruto producers ought to get together and produce some serious crack.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Yup, finally got around to finishing it! Can just imagine an anime Hades making that funny speech before he sends his minions out. Tried but failed to imagine an anime Rochester - how to be an interesting yet unhandsome-Rochester in an anime? Spike is also quite a character. (Actually the Marsters one is a yummy vamp too.) The next book can be a bit hard to get started. Makes me tempted to watch Read or Die/Dream. I have this a distressing habit of obtaining knowledge via the medium of fiction/anime, rather than reading up about the topic directly.

Saw The Time Traveller's Wife at Kino the other day and nibbled at bit at the ending. Dunno if I like the constant changing of viewpoints - but Clare seems like one sad lady. The reviews make the book seems so interesting but...but...I'm allergic!

Stuff today swung me loop-de-loop like a yo-yo again - feeling tired and stressed all over again. That lack of that inner zen, when the landscape inside (heart and mind) just can't settle, you know? Maybe I am more suited to something more solitary?

One year older today ^_^ the sis gave me a deep pink/violet bag with lots of compartments. May use it as my going out bag.

Have always felt that if I am going to make resolutions, birthdays seems a more logical choice than new year's days...have made one but like all resolutions, lack of determination could destined it to a quick death. Received quite a bit of determination yesterday though. I thought July but December is likely too. Am being grinded by the crushing wheels of experience - even if I don't emerge a diamond, graphite'll let me at least sketch a better tomorrow. (Except I can't draw for peanuts, hahah)

Much running around today - church, minced pork noodles at Central, Botanical Gardens, break at Central, Jurong Point (CC!), House of Fury at Empress, home. Been quite some time since I gave off that AP smell - "After PE" heheh.

Botanical Gardens - got to play with my digital camera a lot and discovered an interesting lack of squeamishness in leaning close to photographing ants, spiders and misc insects. My mom must have been wondering which gene got mis-connected, hahah. Had to leave because ran out of batteries (just when I got a butterfly landing really close!)...but we were both tired anyway. Realise some of my most restful days are just running around with my camera and snapping.

House of Fury - wooden acting but the actions scenes were a dream! It made so much sense how they defended and counter-attacked. Have yearning to get claws into more of Yuen Wo-ping's stuff.

Will probably be pheng-ghang-til-black tomorrow and covered in mosquito bites. But I figure, can't be worst than Mondays, can it? :P

La la la spazzy days are here again!!!

Been quite a while since I climb onto the bus home, not being able to rub two neurons together. Like this invisible anti-telepathic helmet blocking out all thought, hahah. Isn't it true that some people live in quiet desperation everyday. (Well I'm not quite there yet, but sure am far from all the I-am-sooo-happy-with-my-life's-direction-stage-makes-you-wanna-smack-them-toots

Incidentally, am most put off by SDU sending letters to my old address again - despite emails and attempted profile-changing. Grrr...But on the upside, my comp is alive again! Happily installing applications.

Had a wine-tasting thingie organised for the tea session last month. Boy what an experience! They had six bottles for us to try from. I only made it to the fourth before starting to wonder why that plate of breadsticks is moving further away from me? By the time I was at my stop home (thank bloody goodness it was only two stops!) I was walking very carefully - the way one does when one's head is absolutely still but the brain is doing a slow waltz. Needed a few horizontal hours before resolutely deciding that I will never run the risk of alcoholism - me too much of a control freak, heh.

But other than alcohol-based fixes above, have dived into manga/anime/books as my usual numbweed to life:

Beware! Dere' be spoilers!

Love Monster
Shamelessly shoujo but with more interesting characters! (who the heroine disarms within a few chappies of course) but besides looking cute/droolsome/funny, it's just crack! Before I could ponder too deeply into the signficance of the school's name (SM School), it informs us that it actually means St. Monster, which just makes me giggle. 99% of the student population is made up of monsters:

Student President - heavenly dog/Crow demon (how else to achieve the black glossy wings necesary for a cool introduction?)
Student Vice-Prez - 8-headed hydra
Side-kicks - Wolfman and a male Yuki-Onna (lol)
School doctor - male horny Medusa who can't get any girls
School nurse - Living skeleton
Girls' Dorm President - Arachne - whom many wisely address as 'Empress'
And cat-spirits and kitsunes, etc.

Guess I don't make much requirements for my manga-reading, something really light and happy, nice to look at and funny is fine by me. Well, ok - it's really easy on the eyes (and not always in a Shinjo Mayu sorta way) but knows how to laugh at itself.

Sukiyo 11
Whad'd I missed?! Is that the end of Yoru? Noooo!!!! More Koyasu Takehito! ... oh gosh, they've lugged out that old I-know-my-best-friend/lover/sibling-is-a-bitch-but-I-must-have-been-hurting-he/she-all-along~*wailwailsobsob* Kinda like the Miaka-Yui thing in FY. If she flipped off Yui and went honey-mooning with Tamahome, FY would be a whole lot shorter and practically bishonen-less....Although Shinichirou and Nanami do a damn good guilt-ridden-rescuers thing.

The Hunted by L.A Banks - bk 3 of the A Vampire Huntress Legend
Her recent publication being that red book with the sexy cover called The Bitten. (lol) Wanted to start from the beginning but The Hunted ended on a high note compared to book 2. Intriguing slang used by the characters - the heroine being African American and her bf (i.e. the Angel counterpart) is Latino. For example, she and her friends refer to her bf as 'boyfriend' in their speech/thought. A whole lot of territorial basic instinct stuff as usual to the genre yet dwelling on relationships a lot like in a romance novel. The heroine is very much my-man-my-turf kinda girl.

Dreamt of a paternal figure driving me off half-finished highways as high as The Mandarin, leaping from one track to another, and me standing standing on the roof of a high building, pretending to be someone I am not. One of those undercover adventure dreams.